Portugal was an incredibly closed society in 1971. The country was ruled by an entrenched dictatorship in power since 1932, which used a ruthless political police force, PIDE, to restrict personal freedoms. It was illegal for more than three people to congregate in public areas, and the PIDE punished political dissidents.

By now, many students have heard the rumors about a former Lawrentian who played guitar with a guy named Justin Vernon. That Lawrentian is Mike Noyce, and he does in fact play guitar with the now-Grammy-award-winning band Bon Iver. Noyce joined Vernon and company in 2007, midway through his sophomore year here at Lawrence.

Sometimes all you want to read is trash. An uncomplicated story with easy-to-follow chapters. A romance novel or some kind of thriller with ridiculous plot twists and hilariously stereotypical characters. Something that reads like a movie: easy to follow, easy to read, with plenty of fun characters.

With The Society for Electro-Acoustic Music gracing campus Feb. 9-11, concerts, paper sessions and installations were abound, transforming winter term reading period into electro-acoustic music immersion weekend.

The Grammys have had everyone mulling over popular music culture for the past few days. Another year has come and gone with little surprise and even less recognition for many great artists. It's at the point where stadium-rock figurehead Dave Grohl has to sermonize about learning guitar, appearing like an outsider in a landscape of heavily-processed dance-pop. Even the independent music scene, fostering relatively DIY ideals, is increasingly occupied by swirling home-brewed approximations of epic electronic music. Like Decca Records said 50 years ago, guitar groups are on the way out.